Escaped exotic bird surrenders to police

An escaped exotic bird flew through the window of a police cruiser in Waltham, Massachusetts Monday and now Animal Control officers are trying to reunite the bird with its owner.

Officer Bill Wentworth was at the scene of a car crash Monday afternoon when there was a sudden distraction.

"Apparently the bird was on the roof of a house, and the people involved in the accident were trying to get the bird to come down," said Officer Wentworth. "The bird came, dive-bombed and hit him the head, and the next thing I knew, it flew into the cruiser and sat on my shoulder."

The officer immediately rolled up the windows of his car and called dispatch.

The bird, a conure, then went peacefully into custody after doing some exploring.

"It didn't provide any resistance. It just seemed to be enjoying itself inside the cruiser," said Officer Wentworth.

Animal Control then coaxed the conure behind bars and questioned it about what clues it may hold about its past.

"I tried to whistle to it, I tried to say, 'you a pretty bird,' just something to get it to talk. Sometimes they do. If they say names, it helps, but this one was not cooperating," said Officer Deanna Gualtieri.

This wasn't the bird's first sighting.

Animal Control had received a call just the day before from someone who spotted it and snapped pictures.

They say the bird seems well cared for because of its ease with people, but they haven't been able to track down its owner yet.

Animal Control doesn't have any leads on the owner, but the conure is staying with a foster family for now.

They say they have gotten quite a few calls about people willing to adopt the bird if one isn't found.